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The Second World War

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The Second World War

By: Antony Beevor
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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A magisterial, single-volume history of the greatest conflict the world has ever known by our foremost military historian.

The Second World War began in August 1939 on the edge of Manchuria and ended there exactly six years later with the Soviet invasion of northern China. The war in Europe appeared completely divorced from the war in the Pacific and China, and yet events on opposite sides of the world had profound effects. Using the most up-to-date scholarship and research, Beevor assembles the whole picture in a gripping narrative that extends from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and from the snowbound steppe to the North African Desert.

Although filling the broadest canvas on a heroic scale, Beevor's THE SECOND WORLD WAR never loses sight of the fate of the ordinary soldiers and civilians whose lives were crushed by the titanic forces unleashed in this, the most terrible war in history.

Read by Sean Barrett

(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group©2012 Antony Beevor 20th Century Military Modern World War Interwar Period Soviet Union Africa Imperialism Imperial Japan Submarine Royalty Holocaust Middle Ages Air Force Russia China
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Critic Reviews

His singular ability to make huge historical events accessible to a general audience recalls the golden age of British narrative history, whose giants include Gibbon, Macaulay and Carlyle (Boyd Tonkin)
Beevor can be credited with single-handedly transforming the reputation of military history (David Edgar)
The myriad pieces of this intricate kaleidoscope are pieced together with exemplary skill ... This is a splendid book, erudite, with an admirable clarity of thought and expression (Roger Moorhouse)
His accounts of the key moments in the Second World War have a sense of colour, drama and immediacy that few narrative historians can match (Dominic Sandbrook)
You feel yourself being carried along on the narrative flow, channelled this way and that through the pools and rapids by Beevor's expert helmanship (Patrick Bishop)
Brocaded with details of the great campaigns and thoughtful explanations of Hitler's murderous belligerence, The Second World War is an absorbing, unsparingly lucid work of military history (Ian Thomson)
Beevor's book is a pleasure to read and an example of intelligent, lively historical writing at its best (Tony Barber)
This is as comprehensive and objective an account of the course of the war as we are likely to get, and the most humanly moving to date (John Gray)
A British historian of great distinction and range, who ... demonstrates his mastery of his sources (Gordon Craig)
A magnificent performance - true excitement from one page to the next delivered in faultless prose (Christoper Silvester)
Beevor is excellent at catching the individual in the flood-tide of events (John Lewis-Stempel)
The book could not really have been done better
If you want to understand the war as military struggle, this book is all you really need. However well you thought you knew the subject, you will learn something new on every page. (Neill Denny)
A truly outstanding historian of war (Michael Howard)
Everyone who is interested in the Second World War should read this book. (Laurence Rees)
The book that Beevor has been building towards writing - and everybody else has been anticipating reading. (Donal O'Donoghue)
remarkably well-written and informative (Norman Stone)
This is the place to begin if you need to get your knowledge of the war in order. (Hew Strachan)
This is history writ large. (James Owen)
the whole story told in the author's usual erudite yet highly readable prose
The heart of Beevor's appeal is precisely that straightforward narrative approach, coupled with his lively, engaging style and his use of memorable, almost cinematic, set-pieces.
He is the most humanitarian of historians, and covers huge sweeps of history through the real stories of the individuals who experienced them. Reading this will be like having him walk me through the history of the war like a personal guide. (Kate Mosse)
This is a book demanding to be read. (Christoper Bray)
All stars
Most relevant
Well written and researched material, expertly delivered. Can't recommend this audio book enough to all history buffs.

Essential listening

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The story of WW2 takes no less than 40 hours to tell and even then it is like drinking from a fire hose. A must listen to.

Overwhelming

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This audio book is a wonderful way to get across events that spanned all theatres of the war. A fantastic achievement.

Amazingly detailed and readable (listenable)

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I haven't read every book there is on WWII, but I'm pre-emptively confident in rating this one as the gold standard of non-fiction books on the subject. This is the one. I've recommended it to everyone, my dad, my boss, my misso, my misso's dog. Everyone should read this book.
It's like 42 hours long and I think I've listened to it 3 times, yet here I am gearing up for a 4th. Can't stop, won't stop.
As far as I'm concerned this is straight up the best value-for-money audiobook you can find. Get it.

You want WWII? This is THE book

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Great read!! A lot of details that I never knew! Some very disturbing stories that brings more to the story of WW2 that times, places and dates

Good read and well read

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